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☆ Drag queens and the long, vibrant history of drag in the US
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Scottie Andrew | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

Barbara Alper/Getty ImagesDrag has become increasingly visible in recent years through mainstream shows like “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and popular public events such as drag brunches, drag bingo and drag queen story hours, in which drag performers read children’s books to young audiences, often at libraries. Some trans drag queens who received hormone injections were “strongly deplored by stage impersonators who (said) that the whole point of female impersonation depends on maleness,” Newton wrote. But “Drag Race” has also skewed viewers’ definition of drag – no drag kings have ever competed on the series, Testa noted, and the judges have long imposed somewhat traditional beauty standards upon contestants. Pickle reads from a book during the Drag Queen Story Hour program at a Los Angeles library in 2019. These lawmakers falsely claim that drag performers “groom” or sexualize children, of which there is also no evidence.

☆ Opinion | We Will Never Be Rid of Tucker Carlson
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Jason Zengerle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Enter Mr. Carlson. “It’s true you have better hair than I do,” Mr. Carlson recalled Mr. Trump telling his answering machine. Mr. Carlson, who’d never met or spoken to Mr. Trump, was amused. Mr. Carlson had two motivations for not joining in the chorus denouncing Mr. Trump. Mr. Carlson’s openness to Mr. Trump also had something to do with his own ideological journey.

☆ The Emotional Relief of Forgiving Someone
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For someone who’s led a charmed life, my 8-year-old can hold a serious grudge. One set received a forgiveness workbook with exercises they completed on their own. Then write it again as more of an observer, without emphasizing how bad the wrongdoer was or how you felt victimized. Those in the control group waited for two weeks before receiving the workbook. When the two weeks were up, researchers found that those participants who’d completed the workbook felt more forgiving than those in the control group — and had reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression.

☆ Why the N.F.L. Draft Is About Much More Than Football
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Elena Bergeron | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

has televised its draft since 1980, and soon after, pro sports leagues realized they could sell rights to their selection shows to emerging cable networks thirsty for content. In the four decades since, football’s rookie roll call has far eclipsed those of its sports peers, giving the N.F.L. At last year’s draft, N.F.L. draft, which begins Thursday in Kansas City, Mo., draws an audience of upward of 11 million people every year for broadcasts across four networks. Even at its worst, the draft is a hit.

☆ Opinion: Harry Belafonte lived in – and transformed – two worlds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Opinion Gene Seymour | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Gene Seymour Jeremy Freeman/CNNBut history, as it often does, had other ideas for Belafonte, who died April 25 at 96, having lived a long, full life as both entertainer and activist. The times he lived in paved a smoother way for him than the one faced by his mentor and hero Paul Robeson. On the other hand, there was, relatively speaking, only so much Belafonte could do on the entertainment side. Here, as elsewhere in Belafonte’s life, the activism and the entertainment sides of his public life worked in tandem to buttress, offset and enhance the other. Join us on Twitter and FacebookAnd in a gratifying sense, the push-pull of history’s demands worked in Belafonte’s favor as a screen actor.

☆ ‘Ted Lasso’ Season 3, Episode 7 Recap: Restaurant Week
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Christopher Orr | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

At the end of the episode, Sam takes his father to see the fractured restaurant, only to find his teammates hard at work repairing it. Now, I confess I’d spent much of the episode trying to remember why Sam had named the restaurant Ola’s; I was planning to recheck Episode 3 and even last season for clues. Keeley and JackPresumably having Aurora-Borealised to their hearts’ content last episode, Keeley and Jack mostly limit themselves to coffee this time around, even if those coffees involve signed Jane Austen first editions and jewelry-filled pastry. In between, Keeley — who’d confided to Jack her love of daisies — returns to an office overflowing with them. (Also, is it just me or is it a tad stalker-y for Jack to secretly pay for Keeley and Rebecca’s dinner?)

☆ Opinion | Biden’s Highest Hurdle Isn’t Age, It’s Passion
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Charles M. Blow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The age question is major concern for Biden, according to political advisers I’ve spoken to recently — and according to the chatter on cable news and online. And the sense that he has underwhelmed is particularly problematic for Biden when it comes to young voters. Younger voters can also be barometers of how much a candidate’s passion factors into his appeal. I reached out to several voting rights advocates and political organizers to discuss Biden’s bid, and the overall impression settles somewhere between cautious optimism and dampened enthusiasm, not so much about Biden’s age, but how voters, including younger voters, look at his policy priorities. As Clifford Albright, the co-founder and executive director of the Black Voters Matter Fund, told me, although younger voters would generally like to see younger candidates, “the age thing can be overcome if you’re talking about the right issues.”

☆ Harry Belafonte, Folk Hero
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Wesley Morris | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

And rather than simply translate his hot-ticket cabaret act for American living rooms, Belafonte imagined something stranger and more alluring. “The bleaker my acting prospects looked,” Belafonte wrote, in “My Song,” his memoir from 2011, “the more I threw myself into political organizing.” That organizing took familiar forms — marches, protests, rallies. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., with Coretta Scott King as the beneficiary, because Dr. King didn’t believe he could afford it. (“Martin began drafting his antiwar speech in my apartment.”) So, yes, Belafonte was near the psychic core and administrative center of the movement. But those bleak Hollywood prospects — some incalculable combination of racism and too-raw talent — kept Belafonte uniquely earthbound, doing a kind of cultural organizing.

☆ 2 Texas cheerleaders were shot in a Texas supermarket parking lot after one opened the door to the wrong vehicle. A suspect is under arrest
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Tina Burnside | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Authorities have arrested the man they say shot two teenage cheerleaders after one said she mistook the suspect’s vehicle as her own in a supermarket parking lot near Texas’ capital – at least the third incident this week in which young people who’d made an apparent mistake were met with gunfire. Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., 25, was taken into custody early Tuesday, the Elgin Police Department said in a news release later that morning. Officers responding just after midnight Tuesday to an H-E-B supermarket parking lot found two people in a vehicle who’d been struck by bullets, police said, citing preliminary reports. The supermarket manager witnessed the incident, and police have surveillance footage from the parking lot, could see the license plate on the suspect’s car and later observed him at his home, police said, according to a probable cause affidavit. Pedro Tello was still wearing the clothing that was observed by Elgin Detectives in the surveillance footage,” the affidavit states.

☆ They dated as teenagers. 40 years later, she decided to go on vacation with him
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Francesca Street | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

“Our hallways in this school, they were outside, and so there’s this beam of sunlight shining down on her,” recalls Bo. “I’d say, ‘Come to my window and I’ll talk to you through the window,’” recalls Beverly. The former flames, now both 60, received invites to their 40th high school reunion, taking place at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock. A high school reunionBo and Beverly reunited at a high school reunion and got to know one another on a subsequent sailing vacation. It was “literally a shack of driftwood and washed up lumber slapped together haphazardly on a remote beach,” recalls Bo.

☆ Takeaways from Biden's trip to Ireland
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Kevin Liptak | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Biden’s trip came as he nears a decision on running again for president. “I own property in Ireland, I’m not going to Ireland,” former President Donald Trump said during Biden’s trip. Patrick Semansky/APDiplomatic legacy: ‘Keep the peace’White House officials made little attempt at ascribing major policy objectives to Biden’s trip. Kevin Lamarque/ReutersBiden makes Ireland visit a family affairMore than anything, Biden’s trip this week had the feeling of a family spring break. Throughout the sometimes-rainy trip, Biden kept his head dry with a baseball cap from the Beau Biden Foundation.

☆ She met her long lost cousin on a cruise ship
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Francesca Street | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The following year, 2015, Eileen celebrated her 70th birthday with a voyage on board Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth cruise ship. She was in shock when she met Paddy at the cruise bar. “We compared stories of travels around the world.”Transatlantic friendshipHere's Paddy, Hazel, Gerard and Eileen photographed on board the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship in 2015, not long after they met. Monaghan familyFor the remaining two weeks of the cruise, the two long lost cousins and their spouses were inseparable. Eileen has also met a whole host of other Irish family members through Paddy.

☆ Crypto: Regulators are cracking down as FTX fallout casts a shadow over digital assets
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —When FTX collapsed in November, it was a seismic event for the crypto industry. On Monday, New York regulators ordered blockchain firm Paxos to stop issuing BUSD, aka Binance USD, citing “several unresolved issues” related to Paxos’ oversight of its relationship with crypto exchange Binance. Investors typically buy them to store money and facilitate deals within the cryptocurrency infrastructure, making them a bedrock of the crypto ecosystem. “Regulation by enforcement is puzzling for crypto enthusiasts,” said Marcus Sotiriou, market analyst at digital asset broker GlobalBlock, in a note. In January, regulators warned US banks and other market participants about the risks of fraud, volatility, and shoddy risk management in the crypto world.

☆ What’s Next In Menswear? 6 Standout Trends From the Latest Runway Shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Jamie Waters | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

TRYING TO SPOT casual clothes at the recent menswear shows was a bit like playing “Where’s Waldo?” Sober, dressier items so outnumbered once-dominant streetwear staples on the catwalks that if you spied a hoodie, jeans or flashy sneakers, you felt like you’d won a game. This season belonged to investment pieces: sharp-shouldered suits, chunky polished-leather shoes, heirloom-quality coats. Guys bored of schlubby sweats and wary of splashing out money on overly loud, quick-to-date clothes when the cost of living is wincingly high. Less clear: How they will fare in the real world, when they hang off average-size mortals, not long-limbed models. One stylist friend announced, half-seriously, that he feared these coats would make his shorter clients look like kids who’d raided their dads’ closets.

☆ AI bot that lets you chat with Jesus, Hitler is latest GPT-3 controversy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( David Ingram | David Ingram Covers Tech For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +9 min

But this week, it sparked viral controversy online over its inclusion of Hitler, his Nazi lieutenants and other dictators from the past. Historical Figures, which also uses GPT-3, launched the first week of January, and as of Wednesday, it had about 9,000 signups, app creator Sidhant Chadda said in a phone interview. “People expect these historical figures to be truthful, but in reality, people are not always 100% honest,” he said. Asking a question costs one coin, and the app charges extra to get access to high-profile historical figures. The possibility of digitally re-animating historical figures has been gaining ground ever since, from the “The Simpsons” to holograms of dead idols such as Buddy Holly and Whitney Houston.

☆ Breakingviews: Layoffs take Big Tech back to more modest future
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Robert Cyran | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK, Jan 20 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) plan to cut 12,000 jobs adds to the sense that U.S. technology firms are preparing for a more modest future. Tech firms based in the United States announced over 97,000 job cuts in 2022 according to consulting firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas, the most since the dot-com crash. Moreover, new job postings fell sharply at the end of 2022, according to trade group CompTIA. If all tech firms did the same, that would leave employment at 4.2 million, or about 5% larger than it was at the end of 2019. loadingCONTEXT NEWSAlphabet plans to eliminate about 12,000 jobs, according to a memo seen by Reuters on Jan. 20.

☆ Prince Harry's William resentment makes 'Spare' a royal tragedy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Vicky Ward | Vicky Ward Is The Author Of | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

“I was twenty the first time I heard the story of what Pa allegedly said to Mummy the day of my birth,” Harry writes. So, too, despite all Harry’s resentment, seems to be his brother. William stays by Harry’s side the night before Harry’s wedding, only leaving to stay the night with Kate and his kids. But on this topic, Harry’ resentment gets the better of him. They’ll read “Spare” and see that, personalities aside, the chief culprit for Harry’s lifelong resentment is the unfortunate law of primogeniture.

☆ Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen’s FTX stake will probably get wiped out
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Brady owns 1.1 million common shares of FTX, while Bundchen owns 686,000 shares, according to bankrupcty court documents filed Monday. Whatever Brady and Bundchen paid for their stakes, they, along with hundreds of other investors, will almost certainly see their positions completely wiped out. When companies go bankrupt, stockholders are typically the last in line to recover any funds. Soon after FTX’s collapse, a customer filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, along with Brady, Bundchen and several other celebrity backers. Federal prosecutors accuse the 30-year-old entrepreneur, once a celebrity in crypto circles, of stealing customer funds from FTX to cover outsize losses at his hedge fund, Alameda.

☆ Draymond Green Sets Us Straight on the Real N.B.A.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +20 min

Mamadi Doumbouya for The New York Times Talk Draymond Green Sets Us Straight on the Real N.B.A. Celtics have a die-hard fan base that’s going to root hard for the Celtics. But when I’ve listened to it, it’s not as if you’re saying things that are all that far away from what pundits or analysts are saying. I don’t think it affected who I was, who I am, because my mom never allowed it to. So when I say what he said is irrelevant, I’m saying that from the standpoint of, Let me not deflect.

☆ Tech’s biggest show is set to kick off in Las Vegas. Here’s what to expect
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The Consumer Electronics Show, now in its 56th year, kicks off this week in Las Vegas with a familiar mix of cutting edge technology and oddball gadgets. And this year’s event, in particular, could show how companies are thinking about products as pandemic concerns recede for some consumers but recession concerns remain. This year, featured speakers will include executives from traditional tech companies such as Samsung, Sony and Amazon, as well as other brands like John Deere, Delta and BMW. Still, the topic of virtual reality products will remain a focus for some companies. HTC is expected to launch the Vive Focus 3 this week at the show, with an emphasis on the metaverse.

Ali Alexander said he believed White House wanted him to lead rallygoers to Capitol "Stop The Steal" organizer Ali Alexander believed the White House wanted him to lead attendees of Trump's Jan. 6 rally to the Capitol, the report said. Alex Jones, who has claimed the White House told him to lead the march, texted Wren at 12:27 p.m. Finally one of the staffers told Trump they thought he should focus on his speech. Trump told Jan. 6 demonstrators at the Capitol in a Twitter video that he loved them but that they should go home. The information was expected to be available as soon as Thursday — the day the House Jan. 6 committee is set to issue its final report on the riot.

It could be worse, the president could have tried to kill’ — he didn’t say kill — ‘the president could have tried to strangle you on Jan. 6,’” Hutchinson said. Hutchinson recalled how during a drive to New Jersey she began wondering whether any aide in the Richard Nixon administration had held a position similar to her own during the Watergate scandal. In remarks, she thanked the Jan. 6 Committee for its work ahead of the final report's release. Hutchinson, who delivered bombshell testimony to the Jan. 6 committee this summer, had previously been represented by Stefan Passantino, who had also worked as a lawyer in the Trump White House. Share this -Link copiedCommittee releases Cassidy Hutchinson transcripts The committee released more transcripts on Thursday, making public the closed-door interviews with White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.

Since age 8, Paula played in a kind of Little League feeder program for Hunter High School in West Valley City. And so, ever since he was tiny, Paula wore Hunter High School Wolverines sweatshirts. From the Bloomfield Tahi familyPaula was a voraciously social teenager, a cannonball of comic, kinetic energy. From the Bloomfield Tahi familyTo lessen his boredom, the family treated Paula to a road trip to see a favorite uncle in California. He’d try to run off.”On Jan. 13, Paula Tupou Bloomfield Tahi was shot during an altercation with other teenagers near his school in West Valley City, Utah.

For years, in fact, Paula clownishly put all those larger cousins on notice, warning them that he’d one day beat them up. From the Bloomfield Tahi familyComing to the plate during the kickball game, Paula was chirping at an older cousin playing first base, who’d recently torn his A.C.L. From the Bloomfield Tahi familyPaula was a voraciously social teenager, a cannonball of comic, kinetic energy. From the Bloomfield Tahi familyTo lessen his boredom, the family treated Paula to a road trip to see a favorite uncle in California. He’d try to run off.”On Jan. 13, Paula Tupou Bloomfield Tahi was shot during an altercation with other teenagers near his school in West Valley City, Utah.

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